Mr Stander, who was the administrator of the gated community where Pistorius lived, was the first person the runner called in the minutes after the shooting at his home in the early hours of Valentine's Day last year.

Giving evidence for the defence, Stander told the court how he had received a phone call at 3.19am on February 14, when the sportsman told him: "Please, please, please come to my house. I shot Reeva. I thought she was an intruder. Please, please come quick."

Mr Stander went on to describe how he and his daughter then drove the short distance to Pistorius' house, where they found him coming down the stairs with fatally-injured Reeva in his arms.

Mr Stander said: "He was really crying, he was in pain, he asked us to please assist him to put Reeva in the car and take her to the hospital."

"He was broken; he was screaming; he was crying; he was praying."

He later added: "[I could see] his commitment to save the young lady's life. He begged her to stay with him, begged God to keep her alive.

"I saw the truth that morning. I saw it and I feel it."

Mr Stander's daughter, Carice Viljoen, said she was woken in the early hours of February 14 by the barking of her dogs, but once awake heard what she thought was a man's voice shouting "help, help, help".

She also described seeing Pistorius carry Reeva down the stairs as she arrived at his house with her father, telling the judge: "I just saw blood everywhere."

She went on to talk about their attempts to save Reeva's life, applying pressure to a wound on her hip, and Pistorius put a finger inside her mouth to help her breathe, but she was declared dead by paramedics.

All the while, Mrs Viljoen said, Pistorius was praying to God and "pleading with Reeva as well to please stay with him".

She said: "He was saying 'just stay with me my love, stay with me'."

When Mrs Viljoean asked him what had happened, he also told her: "I thought she was an intruder."